Group Puts 'Bad' Food To Good Use Donations Go To Hungry Not Trash

At a bottling plant a few years ago, workers accidentally mixed a big batch of apple juice with pineapple juice. The juice was drinkable and nutritious, but no one wanted to buy it.

A Central Florida food distributor once rejected an entire tractor-trailer load of cauliflower. The produce was fresh, but it had been packed nine heads to a case instead of the specified 12.

That food could have ended up in trash bins or down the drain.

Instead, it went to the Second Harvest Food Bank, where it was distributed to the soup kitchens, and religious and social service organizations that feed Central Florida's needy.

This year, from its headquarters in Orlando, the food bank will distribute 3 million pounds of food to more than 300 non-profit organizations in 11 counties.

Founded in 1982, the food bank is a clearinghouse between food distributors and manufacturers who have products they can't sell and social service organiza-tions that feed the needy.

''Our job is to make sure that the food industry knows that there is a place, other than the dumpster, for their excess or unmarketable food,'' said Margaret Linnane, the food bank's executive director.

The food bank operates from a 20,000-square-foot warehouse off North Orange Blossom Trail. With a $400,000 annual budget, raised mainly through donations and fund-raisers, the bank employs a staff of 12.

When food wholesalers and distributors have food they can't sell - whether it be a surplus of a slow-selling salad dressing or a brand of breakfast cereal that doesn't sell - they donate it to the food bank.

Because the bank meets federal requirements as a non-profit organization, the businesses get a tax deduction.

The bank also gets food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and from food drives such as recent ones by the Boy Scouts and Gooding's Supermarkets. The bank also purchases some food that is in demand but not donated in enough quantity, such as peanut butter, tuna fish, coffee, and macaroni and cheese.

Once at the bank, the food is inspected, sorted and entered into the computerized inventory.

The non-profit organizations that receive food from the bank call a telephone recording that lists what is available. They place their order by telephone and make an appointment to pick it up.

For donated food such as breakfast cereal, salad croutons, cake mix, and canned vegetables, the organizations pay a handling fee of a maximum of 14 cents per pound.

The organizations pay more than the 14 cents when the bank has to purchase the food. Items donated in food drives are distributed by the bank without charge.

The handling fee covers 65 percent of the bank's operating costs, with the rest coming from financial donations.

The organizations that buy from the bank pay an average of 9 cents per pound for food that is valued at $2.10 per pound, Linnane said.

The savings help the groups stretch their resources a little further.

The Rev. Joseph Cordovano, who heads Fresh Start Ministries, a live-in program for men recovering from drug and alcohol abuse, said his food bills would be 50 percent higher without the food bank.

Like others that purchase from the bank, Cordovano wishes there was a wider selection - more meat, for example, and less salad dressing and croutons.

The bank has a new 12,000-cubic-foot freezer, but never receives enough meat to meet the demand.

''We can't meet 100 percent of their needs,'' Linnane said. ''We never get enough meat, we never get enough dairy (products). These are things we just don't see donated as often.''

The food bank checks the organizations that receive food to make sure it's stored and handled properly - and to be sure it's not being sold at flea markets and garage sales.

In her 4 1/2 years as director, Linnane said, she has twice cut off organizations when they were caught selling the food.

As in the past, this November will be the bank's busiest money of the year in both demand and donations, Linnane said.

''This is when we see our food drives, and when people are thinking about Thanksgiving and the issue of hunger,'' Linnane said. ''We see our task as getting people to think about these things all year.''